Embracing our ancestor’s active lifestyle

I recently read an interesting article written by Kate Lindemann for the May 2025 issue of the Osteopenia News. Kate has kindly allowed me to share the following content of this article with you.

 

While human culture has changed drastically, especially in the last 50 years, our bodies are pretty much like hunter-gather ancestors, who walked about 30km a day, reaching and bending to get food while carrying their children and possessions on their backs. They ran animals to exhaustion so they could use them for food. Without transportation, they walked; sometimes they ran. Their lives were grounded in physical activity and basic foods without chemical additives.

 

How much is your world like that? Do you eat vegetables, meat and fish without additives? Our bodies were shaped for a far more physical culture than we ever need to experience today. So what can we do to subject our bodies to the stresses our ancestors faced, where our bones will naturally grow and maintain themselves?

 

Modern science has invented many drugs to prevent bone loss or to stimulate faster growth than our bones would do naturally. However, these drugs all have side effects and the resulting bone density is often not as strong as the bones of our ancestors. Additional downsides are explained on the osteopenia3.com web site.

 

So now in my late 80s, I have changed my approach to incorporate factors into my daily life that will allow my body to experience life closer to former days. I have made the following changes to my daily routine that perhaps you  could too. Obviously, if you have any health conditions, always consult your doctor before embarking on new activities.

 

1. When going to the grocery store or bank, I park as far away from the entrances as possible so I am walking more. What can be a delight is that no one tries to beat me to my spot at the far end of the carpark.

 

2. When grocery shopping, I carry a few bags of groceries with my hands as I roll the shopping cart along. When I reach the point of having too much to carry, I just plop a bag or two into the cart.

 

3. When at a multi-storey mall, I take the stairs down as this helps bone building because of the natural jarring that occurs. Moreover, walking upstairs is good cardio exercise too.

 

4. Use a backpack, filled books or bags of dried beans. Start by wearing it for 30 minutes a day, as you perform your normal activities. Increase the weight or duration gradually as your fitness increases.

 

5. How about cutting some of your lawn by hand? Again, start with a small patch and add a bit more each week until you are doing the whole lawn.

 

6. Another possibility is to take up dance classes to add pressure to your bones.

 

7. For those who are not interested in dance or formal exercise, we can always use the time during TV commercials for short bouts of weight-bearing activity.

 

As well as challenging ourselves we should also encourage our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews to engage in sport and physical pastimes. Sitting around tapping away at cell phones does not build good bone density during the years when building bone is paramount.

 

In summary, remember that our bones need weight bearing to get strong, and there are lots of simple ways to easily incorporate more weight-bearing exercise into our routines. A few small changes can build bone and keep our bones strong for the rest of our lives. There is no reason to have a fracture in old age because you did not take care to keep your bones strong while you were still fit and able.

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